“I love to bake, so the fact that I get to start every day playing with dough and making bread, that’s my happy place,” Nguyen said as she kneaded three dozen small loaves of bread.
Over the past five years, she’s been working to perfect the art of baking bГЎnh mГ¬, the Vietnamese term for bread.
“We went to Vietnam so I could actually experience the bread and what it is supposed to taste like, and that actually made a huge difference,” she said.
Nguyen’s husband Mike, whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam more than 40 years ago, says cooking and baking runs in the family.
What You Need To Know
- 20 years after they met, Mike and Stacy Nguyen opened Bánh Mì 47 in downtown Albany this fall
- The restaurant services bánh mì, a staple of Vietnamese cooking
- With the help of M&T Bank, the couple received a Small Business Administration loan to help them pay for much of their kitchen equipment
- SBA loans are typically geared toward new business owners or those in high risk industries who may not typically qualify for traditional financing
“My parents are great cooks, and when we went back to Vietnam, everybody there was a great cook,” he said.
Twenty years after they met at Siena College, the Nguyens decided to go into business for themselves. Each said they grew tired of making long trips centered around getting the perfect bГЎnh mГ¬ sandwich. Continue reading “Small business loan program helps New Yorkers achieve their dream”